


Late

by deadinderry



Category: Guns N' Roses
Genre: Fluff without Plot, Other, just me having fun man, the most self-indulgent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-09
Updated: 2019-09-09
Packaged: 2020-10-13 10:49:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20581280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deadinderry/pseuds/deadinderry
Summary: "He's late.""He's always late."





	Late

**Author's Note:**

> tsup y'all here i am with something that has no plot and is mostly just me. havin a good time

“He’s late.”

“He’s always late,” Slash says, leaning back over the arm of the couch so far that his hair droops down to touch the floor. “Calm down, he’ll be here in fifteen minutes, he’ll smile and say sorry, we’ll all get over it.”

“It’s already been half an hour,” Axl says. He paces. He paces a lot. But he’d always paced. Izzy doesn’t know if he was going into some kind of episode or what, but he’s been pacing more than usual these days. “And he’s _late_.”

“Yell at him when he gets here,” Slash says.

“Should we be worried?” Duff mutters to Izzy.

“About Axl or about Adler?” Izzy says. “Because maybe about what Axl’s going to do to him if he doesn’t show up in about thirty seconds. But I bet the kid just got distracted. He’ll be here in a couple minutes, Axl’ll yell, he’ll look at us like we just killed his dog, you’ll apologize, he’ll apologize, he’ll grin, we’ll all feel terrible, we’ll get down to business.”

This is not their first rodeo. They all have their own ways of apologizing when they’re late. Steven’s is the cheapest, because he never has any cash but he _does _have a smile that make all of them feel bad about yelling at him. Duff is usually late because he got held up at the liquor store, so he’s coming with booze anyway. Izzy doesn’t give a shit, if you’re before Axl you’re early, and Slash—

Is Slash.

“Whatever,” Axl says. “Whatever. We’ll start without him. Fuck, we’ll replace him. Do you know any drummers?”

“Don’t replace him because he was late—”

“At least once a week this month, usually more.”

“Axl—” Duff’s attempt to argue is interrupted by Steven bursting through the door, his usual flurry of apologies, the only difference is that this time he has a black eye and his shirt doesn’t like he _meant _to tear it like that. Axl doesn’t notice and starts laying into him, so Izzy lights a cigarette and watches.

“So what’s your excuse this time,” Axl finishes out.

“Oh,” Steven says. “Got mugged.”

They all kind of pause. Duff breaks it. “You… got mugged?”

“Yeah,” Steven says. He shrugs, a little, and rubs at his face. “Guy knocked me pretty bad so I was kinda like, out of it, and I really wanted something to eat ‘cause I had like a couple bucks and I was gonna go get a burger or something so—” He shrugs again.

“I’m gonna order a pizza,” Duff says. He leaves to go find a phone. Steven goes over to Slash and sits on his lap. Slash, who has known the kid for years, is pretty used to it. Izzy watches. Axl looks a little lost—like, he wants to keep yelling, he really does, but his logic brain might actually be working right now.

Amazing.

“Where’d you get mugged?” Axl says, finally.

“Uh,” Steven says. “You know. Around.”

Steven has no clue where he was when he got mugged. Not unusual.

Duff yells: “_HOW MANY_”

“_Seven_,” Slash yells back.

“_Fuck off!”_

Axl shakes his head. “I’ll be back.”

He leaves. Slash pushes Steven off of his lap and heads to the door, too, saying something about helping Duff figure out what the hell he’s doing, but probably Steven’s just crushing his balls and he doesn’t want to get into a conversation about it. So it’s left with just the two of them. “Axl’s gonna go get your three dollars back,” Izzy says.

Steven looks at him. “You think?”

“Yep,” Izzy says. He takes another drag. Steven’s watching him smoke, so he sighs, offers the pack. Steven bounds over like this is some grand invitation, and Izzy’s on an armchair so Steven swings his feet over one side and situates himself on Izzy’s thighs and puts an arm around his neck. “I offered you a smoke, not a marriage proposal.”

“C’mon, I just got mugged.”

“How long are you using this as an excuse?”

“’till someone else gets mugged.” And he grins.

Izzy shakes his head and grins, a little. Steven’s—well, kinda dumb most of the time, but not bad to be around. Most of the time. He gets annoying, and most of the time Izzy can’t really stand it if he’s not at least a little high, but maybe something about being bashed in the face and robbed calmed him down a little bit. Or maybe he’s just hungry—you know, so far in that he’s starting to get a little less energy instead of just being annoying.

“I’m gonna go mug Duff, then,” Izzy says. “See Axl try and come after me.”

“He never would,” Steven says.

“Next time this happens,” Izzy says, because he knows that there will be a next time. “Like. Call so that Axl doesn’t talk about kicking you out.”

“He was talking about kicking me out?”

Izzy shrugs. He maybe shouldn’t have brought that up, but then again, Axl does threaten to kick any of them out for pretty much anything—it’s just that Steven’s looking like he just got shot. “He talks about kicking us all out,” he says. “Or leaving. All the time. Don’t worry about it.”

“Okay,” Steven says. Izzy doesn’t know if he just takes what everyone says at face value or if it’s just because he doesn’t really have all that many serious conversations with the kid, mostly because, it’s really hard to have a serious conversation with Steven, especially for Izzy—Steven doesn’t want to be serious and Izzy doesn’t want to have a conversation. They’re a weird duo. Steven’s known Slash forever, Duff gets along with practically everyone, and Axl—

Okay, Steven and Axl are a problem sometimes. They get into it sometimes. Steven hasn’t learned that around Axl you roll your eyes after he’s left the room. But Izzy cares about him. Izzy cares about all of them—he might not be like Steven, who’s all open and generous with his affection, who will attach himself to anyone, but he loves them all.

But also, Steven’s been on his lap too long, recently mugged or not.

So he shoves him off. Steven lands on the floor with a squawk and Izzy crosses his legs. “Ow,” Steven says.

“Go tell Duff that if he put Canadian bacon on that fucking pizza he’s dead,” Izzy says.


End file.
